Learning, networks, knowledge, technology, community

The Learning Analytics and Knowledge conference (LAK16) is happening this week in Edinburgh. I unfortunately, due to existing travel and other commitments, am not in attendance. I have great hope for the learning analytics field as one that will provide significant research for learning and help us move past naive quantitative and qualitative assessments of research and knowledge. I see LA as a bricolage of skills, techniques, and academic/practitioner domains. It is a multi-faceted approach of learning exploration and one where anyone with a stake in the future of learning can find an amenable conversation and place to research. Since I am missing LAK16, and feeling nostalgic, I want to share my reflections of how LAK and the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) became the influential agencies that they now are in learning research. As more learning activities occur online, learners produce growing amounts of data. The financials of any first event are critical.

The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and Why? by Gayle Christensen, Andrew Steinmetz, Brandon Alcorn, Amy Bennett, Deirdre Woods, Ezekiel J EmanuelGayle Christensen Office of the Provost, University of Pennsylvania Andrew Steinmetz Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania Brandon Alcorn Office of the Provost, University of PennsylvaniaCristobal Cobo's BlogCristóbal Cobo works with a trans-disciplinary group of PhDs specializing in areas of knowledge generation and transfer, digital skills, future of learning, creativity, innovation and digital culture. He has collaborated on these topics with researchers from more than 25 countries. He is also the director of the Study Center – Ceibal Foundation in Uruguay, which studies the impact of digital technology on education. For more information on his work visit his Oxford Internet Institute profile or Wikipedia page. [This is a cross post from blog Scholasticahq (Interview conducted by Danielle Padula)] We have entered an age of information overload.

3 Simple Ways to Find the Resources You Need to Build E-Learning CoursesRapid elearning design is made up of three core functions: rapid authoring, rapid assets, and rapid instructional design. One thing common to many rapid elearning developers is that while their organizations will fund the purchase of rapid authoring tools, they do little else to fund the development of the assets required to make the elearning course look good and be effective. For example, a large part of the course’s construction involves the visual design of the course. It represents building the right look and feel, something we touched on in this previous post where we reviewed a good visual design activity.

Professor Curt Bonk's e-Learning WorldThis is the homepage of Curtis J. Bonk, Ph.D. Curt is Professor at Indiana University teaching psychology and technology courses. Curt is affiliated with the cognitive sciences program and is adjunct in the School of Informatics at IU. He founded SurveyShare, Inc. in 2003 which he sold in 2010. In addition, he has been founder and president of CourseShare, LLC since 1999.(99+) Google in EducationThis group does not have a welcome message. Welcome to the Google in Education community. This is a place to connect and share with other educators about Google’s product offerings in education. The fastest way to find answers is by searching the various product help centers or, if you are a Google Apps for Education customer, contacting support. Your question may already have an answer!

Remodeling MOOCs in 2014 - ICEF Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitmentSince the first wave of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) around 2012, hypotheses about their impact have abounded, and have changed over time. So too have emotions about the courses evolved (from excitement to disenchantment or even suspicion) to where we may be now: a calmer state where the both the hype and counter-hype have worn off. Now, organisations are using the essence of MOOCs – an online, adaptable, customisable, and accessible platform – to achieve diverse educational outcomes and business models.

Research in Learning TechnologyResearch in Learning Technology is Open Access and published by Co-Action Publishing. Link to journal flyer. ISSN 2156-7069 (print) ISSN 2156-7077 (online). Research in Learning Technology is an international, quarterly, peer-reviewed journal devoted to research and good practice in the use of learning technologies. Members currently have the option to receive Research in Learning Technology as part of their subscription.

Help! » Anne FoxI spend a great deal of time facilitating courses helping teachers learn how to integrate ICT into their everyday practice. Although I have facilitated such courses in blended format with a great deal of face to face input, most of the time now I find myself facilitating 100% online. There are worries of course about what happens when a course participant meets technical problems but most of these can be solved quite quickly with relevant screenshots and a careful description of what has been done up to that point. The printscreen button on the keyboard is invaluable in producing ‘photos’ of error messages or whatever else may be giving a problem when using a specific tool and I make increasing use of screencasting tools such as Screenr which help me to demonstrate how to do something on the screen quite easily.

Random Stuff that MattersJune 8, 2012, [MD] I was first excited to come across EduTechWiki, hosted at TECFA in Geneva, checking out articles about learner autonomy or something as specific as the ArgueGraph script (a very comprehensive article, which probably would have been speedy-deleted from Wikipedia for lack of "notability"). However, as I kept exploring, I realized there's actually a huge amount of educational technology wikis out there. I began collecting these on a wikipage, using the webclipping functionality. From these wikis, we can find articles about topics as different as technology and education in Western history, storyboarding, epistemic affordance, knowledge components, cognitive neuroscience discoveries, multiple intelligences, and a whole lote more (all of the links are from different wikis).

Mentors Group HangoutWhat is Kitely? Kitely provides virtual worlds using OpenSim technology. You can visit virtual worlds that other people have designed, or create your own worlds. Each Kitely account includes one FREE virtual world. Kitely's virtual worlds can be used for a wide variety of activities: you can make friends, play games, experience immersive art, watch theatrical performances, role play, visit information centers and participate in many other activities. Most worlds are family friendly, but it is also possible to create virtual worlds that are targeted at a more mature audience.Matt Walton — FutureLearn, MOOCs and digital disruption to higher educationIt’s just over a year since I had my first conversation about FutureLearn and I was introduced to the world of Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs as they are commonly known. We launched our product in beta in September and now seems like a good moment to reflect on how FutureLearn relates to the world of massive open online courses and the effects of digital on higher education in general. I guess the first thing to say is, that although FutureLearn is certainly born of the MOOC movement and we have very much capitalised on the interest and momentum that massive open online courses have created, I believe that MOOCs are only the starting point for the groundbreaking educational digital product that we are building. The innovation in user experience of a MOOC is that they create an event and introduce scarcity and a sense of jeopardy into an on demand world. Fundamentally connected to this is the social side.

7 Key Ingredients in the successful 21st Century ClassroomEvery modern school should have at least 4 things in technology or take off the modern and just call yourself a school:a STEM Lab. If you want to make it STEAM - Science Technology Engineering, Arts, and Math, then go right ahead! You've still got STEM and you can't have technology without the arts.From Classroom to Online, Think “Transform” not “Transfer” by Jane Bozarth“Find out which aspects of the classroom program are most successful ... and which aspects fail. Talk with learners and the classroom instructors, and review any evaluation or follow-up data they are able to provide.” Converting an existing classroom course to an online format can be a tricky, time-consuming undertaking. The easy way out — simply moving the content and lecture portions to an electronic means of delivery — is what leads to e“Learning” at its worst: slide after slide of bulleted information and loss of engaging activities and the contributions of individual instructors. What’s a better way to go?

Open Course: Social Media & Open EducationI will be facilitating an open graduate course this Fall titled EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education. This will be the 5th time I have taught the course (first time was 2007), and it’s different each time. It looks like I will have about 25 graduate students taking this for credit (which is well over the usual limit), and I’m also inviting anyone out there interested in the experience to participate for free. If you would like to learn more about the course, go to If you’re familiar with the course (from past iterations), you’ll notice that I’ve abandoned the old wiki and moved over to a WordPress site as the ‘central’ space.